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According to Reding, "the Commission has committed itself to reviewing Europe's general rules on protecting personal information, in the light of rapid technological development. At the same time, we will have to find agreement with our partners in other parts of the world, as the information society is becoming more and more global".

For all the talk of data protection legislation, ComputerWeekly.com noted that the biggest danger of data loss comes not from the online world, but from the loss of physical media. According to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Software AG, of 356 reported incidents, 127 were from stolen device such as laptops, 71 were from lost memory sticks and CDs, and 24 were cases of data lost via courier services. Only 33 were "technical/procedural failure", which includes "failure of web site security etc".

The 356 incidents between November 2008 and September 2009 contrast with 190 between October 2007 and November 2008, meaning that the number of incidents is on the up.The details obtained by the FoI request are here.